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Kathy Burke

Kathy Burke survived one of the worst traumas that can happen to a police officer - the shooting death of a partner while they were working on an undercover case. After her own recovery from injuries received in the same incident, she retired to become a hands-on counselor with the New York City Police Department Self-Support Group. She was one of the pioneering officers in this organization for cops who have been injured in the line of duty. As a professionally trained trauma counselor, Burke has held debriefing sessions for the “first responder” Ground Zero cops who had heard the radio calls for help from other cops on September 11th. These brave officers didn’t know they needed an outlet for their trauma and grief to heal, but they found it in Kathy Burke. Detective, her harrowing evolution from law enforcer to cop counselor, was published by Scribner.

Detective

by Kathy Burke with Neal Hirschfeld

Detective has been optioned by Sony Television and Larkin-Goldstein Productions, and is currently in development with Sony Pictures.

Detective is the story of undercover cop Kathy Burke’s career. During her 23-year career on the New York City police force, Burke would become the most highly decorated female detective in the 160-year history of the department. Her success didn’t come without struggle from both criminals and from the members of her own department. Despite harassment from superior officers and her fellow cops, Burke was eventually assigned to working undercover as a member of the elite Major Case Squad, the squad that investigates the highest-profile cases in New York City.

Kathy Burke survived one of the worst traumas that can happen to a police officer - the shooting death of a partner while they were working on a case and then being the subject of false rumors blaming her for it. After recovering from her own injuries, Burke goes on to become a counselor with the New York City Police Department Self-Support Group - an organization for police officers who have been shot, stabbed, maimed or otherwise injured in the line of duty, and which played an important role in “debriefing” Ground Zero cops who didn’t know they even needed an outlet in order to heal.